Return to Me
by leira123
Summary: Over a thousand years later, and Merlin is still causing problems for Arthur.


Arthur awoke to the familiar disorientation that one feels after sleeping in a still position for some time. His body ached and when he opened his eyes, and wondering when Merlin had painted the sky on his ceiling. Which Arthur again found puzzling because Merlin was completely inept at everything he had ever attempted to do and couldn't think of a reason that he would let Merlin into his room with any paint in the first place.

Arthur sat up slowly, taking in his surroundings and clearing out the sleep in his eyes. He was lying on a long seat of sorts in the middle of a field. The field was large with healthy and beautiful green grass and flowers blooming around him. There was a thick fog spilling in around the edges, making a wall around them. The farther out he looked, fog overtook his line of sight. Everything was blocked off that wasn't in the field.

Odd. This wasn't what he expected heaven to be like. Or perhaps this was hell. Either way, it wasn't so very bad. He stood to stretch his legs, taking a few cautious steps away from the bench.

"I wondered when you would awaken."

Arthur turned violently at the voice, sudden terror overtaking his heart. Images from Morgana's and his own death flashed before his eyes and he quickly reached down for his sword. Which was not in his scabbard. Damn. But the woman that stood before him was not a woman he expected to fear. She was tall and thin, her pale completion a stark contrast to her dark and beautiful hair. But her eyes set her apart from her sister most of all from her deep brown eyes that glowed as she smiled kindly at him.

Arthur coughed. "Hello."

The woman's smile widened, and for a moment Arthur wondered if she was an angel. "My, my…" she said. "Merlin may indeed have been right about you."

Lightning seemed to strike the King, as the severity of the situation became apparent. Merlin… who was… magical…. was alone in the forest somewhere with Morgana's dead body. Possibly along with his own, if he really was indeed dead. "Merlin?" Arthur implored. "You know Merlin?"

The woman giggled, as if the words themselves were silly. "I dare say, I do. But then again, everyone knows of Merlin these days. It's not like it once was." She said and she smiled in nostalgia, staring off into space.

"…Right." Arthur decided at this point that the woman was most likely crazy and would probably be little help. Experience helped him identify these people earlier on in the adventure. "So…" he tried again, his hopes deflating, "Do you know where he is? Or where we are?"

"Currently? The Bermuda Triangle. But you've been in Albion for the past… 1,612 years, give or take a few hundred. Time is hard to keep up with when you're underwater." She said factually.

Damn. So she was crazy. "Ok. Do you know how one would get back to Camelot from this… Triangle land?"

She giggled once more, before sighing. "Camelot fell soon after you died. It's somewhere in Winchester now. But Kilgharrah should be here soon. He'll know what to do." The woman said, moving to sit on the bench he had been laying on and began to ring out her hair, expelling copious amounts of water. Which Arthur thought was strange, because he never noticed it was wet.

"Who is this Kilghar…Kilgara…"

"Kilgharrah." The woman said helpfully.

Arthur huffed in irritation. "Yes. Who is this man?"

"I wouldn't exactly call him a man. Or… well I would call him a dragon because that's what he is. You might remember him. He was the one who attacked Camelot."

Arthur paled in anger and horror. "The dragon? Don't have him come here! I don't…have…" he trailed off, searching frantically around the meadow for a weapon.

"Looking for this?"

Arthur turned once more to this voice and saw the woman standing again, holding out his sword. This gave him reason to pause, wondering once more if this woman was a threat. "Yes…" he replied cautiously. "Where did you get that?"

The woman smiled once again and Arthur felt himself relaxing. She gracefully approached him, setting the sword in his hands gently. "Merlin gave it to me…. For safe keeping. I've been waiting to return it to you."

"Merlin, huh?" Arthur mumbled, turning over the sword in his hands looking for any breaks. But there it sat, still unmarred in its perfection. Satisfied, he put the sword into its sheath. He didn't want to offend this strange woman. "You seem to know quite a bit of him. What's your name… my lady?"

"Freya. Just Freya."

The two sat in comfortable silence, as Arthur tried to find a place where the name belonged. "I must apologize. I seem to have forgotten you." Arthur's face warmed by his incompetence.

"Have no fear my liege. I would have been shocked if you had remembered me. The few times we met were quick and…were not always under the best circumstances. Merlin kept our relationship very quiet and I died before we were ever…_properly _introduced."

The hesitation of the word caused Arthur to pause. But after a moment, he voiced one of his deeper concerns. "Am I dead?"

To his surprise, Freya smiled widely once more. "No Arthur. You are no longer dead. God has granted you with a mission on this earth, just as he has granted myself and Merlin. Our fates are intertwined it seems."

The silence echoed as Freya began to ring out her hair and her clothes again. Arthur turned in place, deciding to explore the perimeter. Freya paid him no mind as he unsheathed his sword, continuing to expel water from her hair and clothes. Arthur ventured further into the mist, only to find himself on the opposite end of where he had entered moments later, looking now at the woman's back. Confusion overtook him as he tried to back track, immediately finding himself once again at the opposite end of the field.

"What the hell?" Arthur muttered. When he turned to look back at Freya, she simply shrugged.

"There are many strange things that go on here. Over time many creatures of the old Religion have built homes nearby, hiding away from the world that is no longer like what we once lived in. I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you."

After a moment of deliberation, Arthur moved back to sit next to the woman, scowling. What rotten luck. This day, or whatever this was, was turning out to be the strangest experience in existence. And that had to be saying something from what he had been through. The strange melody that she was humming seemed almost hypnotizing and she continued to ring out her hair, as if it kept refilling of water.

"How do you keep doing that?" he snapped, before closing his mouth and wincing at his own rudeness.

Freya looked at him curiously. "Do what?"

Arthur took a deep breath, trying to push away the irritation and anger that he was feeling. "This thing with your hair. How do you keep getting it filled with water? Are you… magical?"

Freya shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure on the water part. I suppose it has something to do with me living in a lake for the past thousand or so years." She commented mildly, continuing on with her hair. "And as for the magic, yes. I was a druid before I died."

"Ah."

"I hope that does not present a problem." She said, her eyes almost teasing.

"No!" He assured her quickly, his face coloring. It was moments like this that he damned his father. "Not at all. In fact, one of my…. Closest friends is a… sorcerer."

"Warlock." Freya said absentmindedly. "That is, if you are speaking of Merlin."

"You… you know Merlin is magical?"

She smiled at him again, and for some reason he felt as if he was missing something very important, making him look very simple. "Yes, I know Merlin is a warlock. I've known ever since I met him."

This irritated Arthur more than he cared to admit. "Well… I see."

Freya leaned forward to place a hand on his shoulder. "I wouldn't be too upset if I were you. You were the person Merlin cared about the most. Even though I know he loved me, you have always been the most important. He loved you very much."

For some reason this caused Arthur to flush. "Well," he said, turning defensive. "he certainly proved that by his secrets."

Freya started to braid her hair, seeming to think this would expel the water quicker. "He seemed to think you were going to burn him at stake or ban him from the country. Preposterous, I know."

Arthur felt miffed, knowing that Freya was mocking him a little. "You and Merlin huh?" Arthur said, wanting to change the subject. "I just can't imagine _Mer_lin in a relationship with anyone."

Freya smiled. "He is too good for me. But I love him very much. His soul is the purest thing I have ever encountered in all my years."

Arthur felt humbled once more, opting to look at the sky to fight off the horrifying burning sensation that he felt around his eyes. "Yeah." Arthur murmured, his voice husky. "He was a good guy."

"I hope you returning will cheer him up. He's been rather lonely I think since everyone died."

Arthur could think of nothing to say to that.

Arthur couldn't tell for certain how long it was until Kilgharrah finally arrived. Time moved strangely, seconds seemed like hours and days seemed like breaths in time. Freya simply hummed, the two strangely content waiting for the deadly dragon, to them what to do next. Arthur listened to the melody, pictures of Gwen danced around in his head. He felt sorry for leaving her like he did, leaving a country for her to lead. All alone. No one else there to shoulder the burden that belonged to him.

Freya stopped her humming at one point, looking expectantly to the sky. Arthur snapped out of his musings, pushing himself off of the bench, his sword extended. The dragon appeared quickly, landing in a fluid and graceful gesture. Arthur raised his sword slightly, ready to attack at any given moment. The dragon chose to ignore him completely.

"Freya my dear. How are you doing?"

"Quite well, thank you. I seem to be dripping more than usual." She said with a lighthearted laugh. She stood, moving to lay a friendly hand on the dragons arm. "It's good to see you. Especially knowing what this all means. The waiting's finally over."

"More or less." Kilgharrah agreed, glancing over to the King that was slowly backing himself into a corner.

"Don't be too hard on him. He's very confused."

"Understandably so, I should think. " Kilgharrah stretched himself to full height, almost making the mighty King of Camelot pass out from fear. "King Arthur. You're looking quite well, after all these years of slumber. Death has favored you."

Words were caught in Arthur's throat as he attempted to respond. He instead chose to adjust his grip on his sword.

"Put that foolish weapon down before you hurt yourself. I can no more do harm to you than I can to myself." The dragon snapped, crouching back down into a more comfortable position. "Merlin has forbidden me to harm anyone from Camelot. And you seem to fall under that umbrella."

'What's an umbrella?' Arthur thought frantically, lowering his sword only at the hope of appeasing the monster. Arthur had been afraid of very few things in his life. But spiders and dragons seemed to be the only lasting fear in him to this day. "Why does everyone keep speaking of Merlin? And where is he? Is he dead?"

"Merlin is…. Immortal, I suppose. He's been waiting for you for the past sixteen hundred years. His exact location is unknown, but now that you're awake," the dragon said, looking very critically at him as if he had purposely been sleeping for so long, "things should fall into their natural way."

"Once the knights have been fully resurrected." Freya agreed, moving to sit back on the bench.

"My knights?"

"Only a key few. Sir Gwaine, Sir Eylan, Sir Perciveal, Sir Leon and Sir Lancelot. The prophecy specifically requires your knights to rise with you. The most loyal of the bunch." Kilgharrah murmured. "Gwaine and Perciveal have already awakened. Lancelot was waking as I left."

"What prophecy?" Arthur demanded, rather testily. "I never heard of any prophecy like that."

Kilgharrah looked unimpressed. "No doubt you would have been oblivious to it with your obvious distain toward anything magical. A prophecy was made a few hundred years before your birth... by a witch I might add. It spoke of the Once and Future King, who when defeated in battle would rise up once more with his knights and his loyal servant Emyrs and save the world from falling into the dark ages."

A numb feeling started to settle into the pit of Arthur's stomach. He wanted Gwen….or Merlin. He wanted someone who he knew and trust. "Let me see Merlin." Arthur demanded.

"Are you not listening?" Kilgharrah snapped. "We don't know where he is!"

"That's not entirely true. He's somewhere in Britain." Freya chirped in helpfully. "But only you know where he is Arthur."

"Don't be daft. Of course I don't know where Merlin is. And why haven't you been keeping up with him?" Arthur looked towards Freya. "Aren't you two together or something?"

"I saw him about six hundred years ago." Freya said with a shrug, throwing her dripping hair behind her in frustration. "Unfortunately the commute was more than was realistic. My lake was destroyed many years back, so I decided to move to the Bermuda Triangle. It's really quite nice here."

Arthur took a deep breath. "Fine. How do I… 'know' where he is?"

"That has yet to be determined." Kilgharrah said cryptically. "First you must reunite with your knights. Freya, we shall see each other very soon." Flapping his wings, he flew he started to rise into the sky. Arthur, seeing Freya walking into the fog and disappearing completely, tried to follow her. But Kilgharrah swooped by and picked up Arthur with his claws.

Arthur swears later that the high pitched scream he let loose was more of a dignified battle cry.

**My little Ficlet that could be continued if you guys like it. It's been rotting away in my computer and I've been thinking about continuing. Let me know what you guys think! I've never written a Merlin fanfiction before, so let my know how I did.**

**A HUGE thanks goes out to my beta reader Maddie Tess who has dealt with my annoying grammatical errors and thousands of questions with wonderful and kind responses.**


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